Royole orders production equipment from SFA Engineering for its upcoming flexible OLED fab

SFA Engineering announced that it has signed a $53.5 million contract with OLED developer Royole to supply OLED manufacturing equipment. SFA did not disclose what kind of deposition equipment it will deliver exactly.

Royole is constructing a 5.5-Gen flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen, China. The new fab is scheduled to begin operation in 2018 and will have a monthly capacity of 45,000 substrates.

In November 2016 Royola announced that it raised $80 million from several VCs, at a valuation of $3 billion. Since its inception in 2012 Royole raised $280 million, but it probably has access to more funds as the cost estimation of its production fab is around $1.7 billion.

In addition to flexible OLED production and R&D, Royole also develops VR headsets, and in 2016 Royole launched its first product, the Royole Moon foldable VR headset - that uses OLED microdisplays to achieve a PPI of over 3,000. The $799 Moon also includes noise-cancelling headphones and runs on the company's own Moon OS. It is not clear if Royole produces or purchases these microdisplays.

Royole is also developing flexible sensor technology, and offers its IP for licensing. The company says it has over 500 patents (issued and pending) - in the areas of materials, processes, devices, circuits, software and product design.